


Fullmetal Owlchemist

by ZeOtaku



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22996303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeOtaku/pseuds/ZeOtaku
Summary: FMA x TOH crossover- characters of the Owl House but adapted into the setting of FMA / FMA:B. While there will be similarities between FMA, I imagine this going in a completely different path from the original story.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	1. The Owlchemist Lady

It was a hard and rainy day in Resembool. Most of the men were outside trying to reinforce the levee, but to no avail. The rain didn't look like it was stopping anytime soon- in fact, it would get even stronger. At this rate, the levee would burst and flood into the village.

A young Luz was watching all of the men doing their best to reinforce the weak levee, throwing sandbag over sandbag in hopes that it would keep the water out just for a while longer. Luz had a piece of paper with her, and she drew a transmutation circle that while it was good for her age, was overall drawn very haphazardly. She put her hands on it, and from the circle, a small and pathetic chunk of earth shot from the ground and make a small wall, one only the size of a water bottle. Luz gasped in joy and shouted, "It worked! This is definitely gonna help the village!"

Unlucky for her, the small wall lived a very finite life, crumbling almost as soon as she was done appraising her work. "Darn..." she said, unenthusiastically.

One of the village's men heard her shout, running over to the little girl and grabbing her wrist. "Luz, what do you think you're doing out here?" he interrogated. "Why aren't you with your mother?"

"Because I wanna help!" said Luz, giving a sort of puppy eyed face. However, no amount of cuteness would deter the man from the seriousness of the current situation. He smiled a bit at her before switching to a rather sorrow frown.

"Luz," he said with both resoluteness and disappointment. "You can't be here. I have to take you home."

Luz started to struggle a bit. "Please! I want to help you guys! I can help! I know how to do transmutation circles!" She pleaded and yelled to be of assistance to the point of almost crying, but the man wouldn't be swayed.

"Come on, Luz. I'm going to take you home," said the man.

Luz looked at him before sighing, understanding that she really had no choice.

Just as the two were about to head to her house, a strange old lady and her pet (seemingly) walked in front of all of the village's men, looking at the sad excuse of the levee. Many of them were shouting for her to leave the scene and retreat to a safe area. Her little pet started yapping back at the men, saying, "Move out the way! Eda's gonna show you losers how a levee is built right!"

"Pipe down, King," Eda said. "I'm not here to prove a point. I thought I'd just do something a bit, humanitarian."

The levee finally burst, and the men began running back. Cracking her knuckles, Eda clapped her hands, crouched down and set them firmly on the ground. Large chunks of earth began shooting up around the levee and formed itself into rock hard, solid ramparts. They shot even taller than the levee, which would definitely keep the water at bay until the rain passed.

Everyone at the scene watched in awe at the miracle they had just witnessed, especially Luz. She muttered to herself, "She didn't even need to use a transmutation circle..."

Someone shouted out at her, saying "Who are you?"

Eda stood up and faced the crowd. She let out a chuckle, replying with, "Just a regular ol' owl lady." She gave a sassy smirk before coughing up a mixture of blood and feathers, fainting. King ran over to her to comfort her and shouted to the crowd, "Medic! Is there a medic in this village?"

In almost perfect timing, Luz's mother, Ms. Noceda, finally arrived to the scene to find her daughter. She saw her with the man, thanking him for keeping a close watch on her before yanking her daughter over to her and reprimanding her. However, she heard King's cry for a medic. Leaving her daughter with the man and running over to King and Eda, she did a primary assessment of her before shouting to the men, "Bring me a stretcher!"

Eda woke up on a bed inside a clinic. She was met with a major pulsating headache. "Ow!" she exclaimed, putting her hand on her head. "What a perfect time to pass out- in front of a crowd. How humiliating."

She saw King sleeping on the other side of the bed. Eda tapped him aggressively. "Wake up, you oversized rat. Where did you put my elixir at?"

"Sorry for keeping you waiting, ma'am," said Ms. Noceda. She had just entered the room with the large vile of elixir. "Your friend gave this to me before he went to sleep- he said it was for your sickness. I was afraid since I had no idea what to do. Your case is the first one I've seen."

She handed the elixir to Eda, who then popped the cap of it. "Sheesh, be glad I'm the only case you'll probably ever seen. If you want the curse I have, you basically have to go fetching for it, if you know what I mean, lady!" Eda snickered at her own joke before chugging down on the elixir. Ms. Noceda didn't quite get Eda's joke, but laughed along with it.

Eda's body was slightly disfigured from the curse, so once she took the elixir, her body changed back to normal as if it was magic. Ms. Noceda was quite surprised by the shocking transformation- and even more so surprised by the spring of youth back into Eda. She stood up and started stretching a bit. "Finally!" Eda shouted. "Some new life has been breathed back into this foxy lady!"

Ms. Noceda chuckled. "I'm glad you're feeling better, ma'am. Please be sure not to overexert yourself. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Eda sat back down on the bed. "If you wouldn't mind, some food would be nice. My companion here ate up all of my rations so now I'm stuck with nothing."

Ms. Noceda nodded. "I'll cook you up some soup ma'am," she said, before exiting the room.

"Thanks!" Eda said. Yawning a bit, she looked around the room and grabbed a copy of the newspaper that was on the other side of her bed.

"I know you're there, you little rascal," Eda said, looking at the door.

Luz peeked her head outside of the door, looking at Eda staring straight at her.

"I don't bite. Well, I mean, I DO bite depending on the person. But I promise I won't bite you." Eda winked and gestured Luz to come over.

The young girl enthusiastically walked over to Eda. The first thing she said was, "Are you an alchemist, grandma?"

Eda looked a bit offended. "Whoa, okay. I am NOT that old. Just because I have a few wrinkles and a raspy voice... and gray hair doesn't mean I'm anyone's grandma. Besides, isn't it polite to introduce yourself before asking questions?"

Luz pouted a bit before smiling again. "Okay! My name is Luz Noceda! What's your name?"

Eda cleared her throat. "I'm Eda, the Owlchemist. But you can just call me Eda. Now, Luz, do you wanna tell me why you were spying on me and your mom while we were having our adult talk?"

Luz became a bit bashful for being called out. "I'm sorry... I just think you're really cool because you're an alchemist! I wanna be an alchemist!"

Eda looked at her a bit crazy before bawling, snorting in between her laughs. "You're so young. I remember when I had that same jovial spirit you had. Kid, you don't wanna be an alchemist-"

Luz smile started to droop into a disappointed frown. Eda realized she could take the life out of this kid. She choked on her words and tried to think of a way to spark her enthusiasm again.

"That is to say," continued Eda, "You don't wanna be an alchemist without knowing all of the cool alchemy tricks! Yea, that's what I was gonna say! Go ahead and show me what you know, Luz."

Luz's smile return before she looked around the clinic, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper. She drew a simple transmutation circle, threw some firewood she hid in her shirt from her mom in the middle, and activated it. The sticks transmuted into a wooden boat.

It was a simple transmutation circle. Of course any kid could do that. But, better to act impressed than break this kid's dream. She nodded, saying "Not bad, kid." She picked up the boat and inspected it- it was way worse than she thought, but then again, Luz was only 10 years old or something. "Tell me, why do you want to become an alchemist?"

"Because my _papí_ is one! He always showed me all of the cool tricks before he... went away." Luz's smile faded away as she finished her sentence.

Eda nodded, thinking to herself, "I probably knew her dad- probably some State Alchemist whose life was wasted on nothing." Eda sighed to herself a bit before looking at Luz.

"I'll tell you what, kid, I'm gonna teach you some alchemy. Give me some of that firewood you have?"

Luz looked up at her and smiled, giving her a chunk of firewood. Eda got out of bed and drew a transmutation circle on the other side of the paper that Luz wrote on. "I call this one Owlbert," said Eda, before transmuting the firewood into an owl like structure, which she personally called Owlbert. Owlbert jumped onto Eda's forearm, making hoots. Eda chuckled, saying, "Alchemy do a lot of things, if you were to keep learning. You can transmute plants, fire, puppets-"

Eda looked at Luz. She seemed way too into it. Eda knew what she was thinking, and she had to stop it.

"-but you can never transmute a human. If there's one thing you need to know, you can never bring a human back to life. Will you remember that, Luz?"

Luz looked at Eda and hesitated to speak, but she nodded albeit it reluctantly. "Yes, Ms. Eda."

"Great!" she said. "Now that you understand that, I wanna see you give it a shot."

Luz nodded in compliance before copying Eda's transmutation circle. What she made... was probably even worse than her little pathetic boat.

Eda looked at in disgust. "You have a lot to learn, kid..."

Luz and Eda spent half an hour messing with transmutation circles and overall having a really fun time. You would almost think that Eda was Luz's babysitter or grandma.

Luz's mom finally came in with Eda's food. "I have your soup, Ms. Eda," she said.

"Finally! A half an hour of messing with transmutation circles really makes a woman hungry. Thank you very much," Eda said, jumping to her feet and grabbing the bowl of soup. Like the elixir, she chugged down on the soup as if she was a garbage compactor.

"Sorry for my _pequeñina_ 's overly curious behavior. But it seems like you two are getting along quite well." Ms. Noceda chuckled.

"Your daughter is a jokester, Ms. Noceda. Yea, she's a bit of a rascal, but she's a fun little rat," replied Eda. Her bowl was empty, and she handed it back to Ms. Noceda who looked at it in surprise.

"You sure eat fast, Ms. Eda..." she said. "Anyways, if you're feeling all better by the time the rain is gone, you should be free to leave."

Heading back towards the kitchen, she felt Luz tug on her dress. " _Mama_ , can I please learn how to do alchemy with Ms. Eda?"

Ms. Noceda answered almost instantly. " _Mija_ , you already know that I don't want you to become an alchemist. It's too dangerous for a sweet girl like you." Ms. Noceda looked to Eda for confirmation- maybe Eda didn't even want to train her anyways.

Truth be told, this was the most fun Eda had in a long time. "Well, Ms. Noceda, if you asked me... Your daughter isn't really all that good at alchemy. But Luz has spirit! I'd like to train her as well. I don't know what may have happened that... made you feel insecure about her becoming an alchemist, but I'll make sure that whatever happens to her, she doesn't get hurt. You can trust me on that one! I won't even charge you!"

Ms. Noceda looked back and forth and Luz and Eda. She was really scared for Luz to become an alchemist, because her own husband died as one. But, it was because of her husband that inspired Luz so much. It would be hard to say no now, but she just wasn't ready to give her up.

"I'll think about it. You two have fun," finished Ms. Noceda, before exiting the room.

The sun finally came out after the storm. Eda was finished packing her bags and King was with her. "It's about time we head out, isn't it?"

"Yea. I demand some more food for the journey that lies ahead of us!"

"Yea, yea, yea, we'll get some more good. Be patient, you furry roach. Here, take this." Eda said, handing him a bag.

They headed out the door with the Noceda's leading them to the train station. The train was arriving in about one minute. They took this time to do their final departures.

"Thanks for everything, Ms. Noceda. I'd probably be fine without you, but it's nice to have some hospitality," said Eda.

"My pleasure, Ms. Eda. Please, have a safe trip to your destination," she replied.

"And as for you, kid," Eda said, crouching to Luz's level, "if you keep that hard-headedness, you might end up dead. But you may also be a great alchemist one day. Let's just hope it's the latter." She tapped on Luz's little forehead.

Luz gave her a big bear hug. "I'm gonna miss you Eda! Please come back to visit!"

Eda groaned in discomfort while King laughed at her, saying "She doesn't like the huggies, human!"

"Ew! Alright, alright, that's enough hugging for one day, Luz." When she realized Luz wouldn't let go, Eda gave in and gave her a hug as well. The hug lasted until the train came, in which Eda had to break the hug.

"That's enough intimacy for one day. Well, I guess this is farewell. Until we meet again!" Eda gripped her bags and headed for the train with King.

Luz watched the two walk down the train platform. Ms. Noceda grabbed a small lunch box and a train ticket from behind her and gave it to Luz. Luz was confused at first, but once she realized what her mom was telling her to do...

"Please don't make me regret this _mija_. Please stay safe, _te queiro mucho_ ," said Ms. Noceda.

Luz bust into tears, hugging her mom with all of her little strength. Her mom hugged her back wholeheartedly as this would be the last hug they'd have in weeks.

"Thank you _mama_! I'll miss you!" said Luz.

"Be a big girl now, Luz," Ms. Noceda said, pushing her daughter a bit towards the train platform.

She wiped her tears, nodding before running with full speed towards Eda and King. Luz shouted their names with tears and snot still running. "Please wait for me! I'm coming with you!" She gave a big bear hug to Eda's leg before following the two on the train.

The train finally left, and so did her daughter with these two strangers. Tears were running down Ms. Noceda's cheek- tears of both fear and happiness.


	2. One is All, All is One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz complains about not learning anything from Eda, but before she can, she must learn an important lesson about alchemy.

The first few months of Luz living with Eda as her apprentice was the best months of her life. Luz was finally free of her mother watching close over her, as if she was Luz's own shadow. Eda's more relaxed attitude allowed Luz to enjoy being a kid more. She was still a bit weird to other kids, but that didn't bother her much- she was finally getting to do her life's dream, which was learn alchemy.

Or so she thought.

Going on two years of living with Eda and King, Luz began to realize she was more of a glorified maid than an "apprentice". Eda hadn't taught her much of anything for nearly two years now besides two very simple spells. Luz was starting to get a bit fed up with Eda's laziness.

It was early in the morning. Luz was in her bed, an alchemy book over her face she took from Eda's room. Maybe if Eda wouldn't teach her a thing, she'd just have to learn herself. She was up all night studying, yearning to learn something new. The sun had cracked the horizon, and Luz was dead asleep.

Like any old lady, Eda woke up around the same time the sun did. She took a nice steamy shower and was clad in her bathrobe. Heading to Luz's room, she began banging on the door loudly. After a loud yawn, she said brashly, "Luz? Wake up and cook us some breakfast, why won't you? And also cook that mangú thing you usually do- that stuff is pretty good."

The loud knocking did wake up Luz. She tried to play it off by covering her ears with her pillows, hoping to get a few extra minutes of sleeping. Unfortunately for her, she only got a few seconds before the knocking was too much for her. Luz shouted, "Alright, alright! Give me a second to get ready..."

"Thanks Luz, you're a real sweetheart," yawned Eda before walking off to the living room the read the newspaper.

Luz groaned, sitting up in her bed and looking at the door grumpily. For some reason, she felt as if she had been scammed by Eda- this was definitely different from her home life, she'd agree. But it wasn't much better- Luz had a bit more freedom than at home, but she felt like Eda's slave.

After taking a bath and freshening up for the day, Luz headed into the kitchen to cook everyone breakfast for the day. Putting on an apron in the kitchen, she began taking out eggs, milk, flour, plantains, and other ingredients. Lazy Eda was at the breakfast table, reading the newspaper. King hadn't even woken up yet. Looking through the news, she saw an article that caught her eye. "Hey, hear this Luz- one of those Blight kids I was telling you about became a Major! Man, I'm telling you, these kids nowadays are becoming some pretty damn good alchemists. They're not much older than you, I think. Too bad the government is going to crush their dreams and spit it out in front of their face. That won't happen to you, right Luz?" Eda chuckled at her joke.

Luz returned an "Mhm", seemingly apathetic to what Eda had just said. Eda raised an eyebrow to Luz's seemingly down demeanor. Luz has been acting like this for the past few weeks, Eda had noticed. But even then, Luz would return a slightly more enthusiastic reply.

"Hmph," said Eda. "Somebody's not having a good day, I see."

Eda was unknowingly right- Luz was more pissed than Eda figured. Finishing the breakfast, Luz went to wake up King on the couch, tapping him lightly. She served everyone's plate and Eda's morning cup of coffee.

"Thanks, sweetheart," said Eda, patting Luz on the shoulder.

Luz was averse to it, jerking a bit when she did. Eda looked at Luz surprisingly, confirming in her mind that there was something wrong with that girl. Luz sat down broodingly and began to eat her breakfast.

Eda rolled up her newspaper and leaned on the table a bit, interrogating Luz. "Hey, what the hell is wrong with you? You've been acting like this the past few weeks, but today, you're just acting out!"

Luz gave Eda a cold stare. "You know, I feel a bit scammed Eda. I came here when I was ten, hoping to learn some alchemy. I'm twelve now. You've barely taught me anything."

Eda scoffed. "Bullshit! I've taught you a lot of transmutation spells!"

Luz stood up and retaliated. "All you taught me was a light spell and how to make Owlbert! You taught me two spells over the span of two years! If I knew I'd just be your maid, then I would've stayed home!"

Eda stood up to, standing her own ground. "Don't raise your voice at me, girl. You're under my roof, and you follow my rules! Yea, I taught you how to make Owlbert, but you're still bad at it!"

"That's because you've never actually cared to see my progress in using that transmutation circle." Luz grabbed a knife and carved the transmutation for Owlbert down on the breakfast table.

"Stop that!" Eda attempted to stop Luz from vandalizing her table. Luz was able to push Eda away from her, and finished the transmutation circle. She slammed her fist down, and with the transmutation circle created a nearly perfect Owlbert staff.

Eda on the floor looked a bit in awe. "I didn't actually think you could do it..."

Luz pointed the staff at her. "I showed you that I can master one transmutation circle. Now teach me something new!"

Eda clapped her hands together, forming an Owlbert from her floor and using it to whack Luz to the ground. She stood up and pointed her staff at Luz. "You're not ready to challenge me to anything, kid. You better be ready to pay for that table."

Luz was on the verge of tears, but she kept them in. Holding her bruise on her face where Eda had whacked her, she shouted at her. "You're just a big jerk! You keep telling me about how other kids my age are doing so good as State Alchemists, yet you haven't even taught me anything! It's not fair!"

Eda scoffed at her. "Look at you, about to break down like a little baby. If you don't like my methods, then leave."

King finally woke up and entered the kitchen. "Goodness gracious! Can a demon monarch please get some sleep around here-"

Luz grabbed King and held him a like a Teddy bear. "The only thing that's worth staying is this cutie-pie. I bet you just want some young, cute girl to do your dirty work for you, you old hag! I bet you're not even a real alchemist!"

King struggled to get out of Luz's grip. "Unhand me, Luz! How have you not learned in two years that I hate being coddled and called 'cute'?! I don't want to be part of your drama!"

Eda strengthened her grip of her staff, ready to whack Luz again. Luz flinched at first, but she was ready for it- if Eda hit her, she would only be proving Luz right. 

King shouted at Eda too. "Please do something, Eda! I'm tired of this girl treating me as if I'm 'cute'!"

Eda pinched the bridge of her nose. "Can it, King."

She thought to herself for a bit before looking at Luz. "Alright, kid. You wanna learn alchemy so damn bad? Come with me."

Eda threw Luz onto the beach of the island. "Consider this your first formal lesson, Luz. Your job is to stay alive on this island for one month and live. If you give up, just shoot this flare at anytime and I'll come get you to take you home." Eda threw Luz a flare gun to use.

"Also, you need to tell me what this phrase mean by the time your month is over: One is all, all is one. Do you understand everything?"

Luz was a bit freaked out, but this was her only chance to prove to Eda she was ready. She nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"Alright. See you in a month, if you're not dead by then. Have fun!" Eda said, waving at Luz before rowing back to the main land.

King was on the boat, and he gave Luz a raspberry before the eventually left sight.

Luz was alone on the island. Behind her was a dense jungle with who knew what. Luz stayed optimistic, though. "This is finally my chance to prove that old hag Eda right! Hopefully I don't blow it by dying..."

Luz was on the island for a few hours now, and the sun was starting to go down. She was trying to look for some food- hopefully a coconut or something. She was a bit too scared to killed any animals, and she definitely didn't want to have to kill a cute rabbit. Looking up, Luz finally found a bunch of bananas hanging on a tree. She tried to jump up to get them, but she was way too short to even jump halfway there. Backing up from the tree to gain a bit of speed, the small girl ran up to it and jump on it, attempting to climb it. 

At about this time, a low growl could be heard in the distance. Luz had no idea what that was, but she didn't want to have anything to do with it. She scurried up the tree and tried to whack down one of the bunches of bananas. Her arms were too short to reach it, so she took the flare gun and started whacking once more. Again, there was still a bit too much space between her and the bananas. She climbed onto the peduncle to get closer to the bananas, but the bunches snapped from the tree due to her eight, and both the bananas and her came crashing down to the jungle floor.

Luckily, the fall wasn't too bad since the leaves acted as a cushion, but her back did feel a bit of pain. "Ay..." groaned Luz. Standing up slowly, she tried to take the entire bunch of bananas, but it was too heavy to even drag. She broke off a few which would be easy for her to carry.

Her victory in getting the bananas were shortlived- Luz heard footsteps closing in on her. Coming from the dense bush, a large tiger appeared and stopped in front of Luz, seemingly inspecting her. Luz was scared speechless and on the verge of pissing her pants. Her eyes met the tiger's, widened with fear and pleading for mercy. She slowly backed up away from it, keeping her eyes locked onto it. As she took a step away from the tiger, the tiger took a step closer to her.

The tiger roared at Luz, which was a signal for her to start running away from it. Luz had hoped the beast would get bored with her, but like any predatory animal, it only provoked the chase. Luz ripped one of the bananas from the small bunch she was holding and threw it at the tiger. The banana only seemed to anger the beast more, keeping on with its pursuit of Luz.

Luz began crying uncontrollably. "No! Please, it can't end here!" One by one, she threw banana after banana, hoping it would slow down the beast. She kept throwing until she had two bananas left. It seemed to had work in slowing down the tiger, but Luz wasn't paying attention and ending up getting her foot stuck in a vine.

"No, no, no," Luz muttered to herself. She tried to get her foot uncaught in the vines, but the tiger caught up with Luz. It was rushing towards her at full speed.

Luz had only one choice left- she looked for her flare gun. Finding it, she quickly pointed it at the tiger and shot at it. The flare exploded in the tiger's face, which left Luz with enough time to ditch her shoe, take the two bananas she had left, and make a run for it. The flare would blind the tiger for an indefinite time, and it would definitely be wary of Luz the next time it saw her, if it planned on meeting her again.

Luz made her way back to the beach, where she had initially set up camp. She was tired and hungry and scared, but at least she survived. However, she had wasted her flare on the tiger, so now she was stuck on the island for the month. "No... I'm not ready," thought Luz.

She took the flare and aimed it up in the sky, hoping Eda would pity her and put another flare in there. But alas, nothing came out. Luz put the gun down and looked at the purplish-blue sky. The only reassuring she had now were these bananas.

A chimp came over to Luz, seemingly to inspect her. Luz was initially scared of it at first, but she figured that it probably wouldn't be much harm to her. Actually, she thought it look kinda cute. She patted the monkey over and it sat next to her.

"You know, maybe not everything on this island is bad after all. You're kinda cute. You even look a little bit like me. I just hope this month goes by really quick. And that I don't get attacked by any other tigers. You know, maybe alchemy wasn't the histrionic fantasy world I thought it would be. But if I can get through this, then I'll prove to Eda that I'm ready for it."

The chimp look confused.

"Yea, you're probably just here for a banana. I only have two, but I can share you one." Smiling, she split the bunch and handed the chimp a banana. The chimp acted on its instincts and grabbed both bananas from Luz. It ran back into the jungle.

"No, wait! Give that back!" Luz shouted and tried to chase after it, but she was too scared to even enter back into the jungle. Her smile went back to a despondent frown.

"No... that was my only food." Luz went back to the edge of the beach, watching the sky turn fully dark with the stars twinkling in the sky. She saw the mainland from far away, with the lights of the buildings give some illumination in the sky. It was too far and too deep to swim, and Luz wasn't a very good swimmer to start with.

She had no more tears to cry with. Laying down, she muttered to herself "This definitely isn't the histrionic fantasy world I thought it would be..." before succumbing to fatigue.

Luz first week on the island was hell. She was too scared to stay in the jungle for more than a few minutes, famished and homesick. The only thing she ate that entire week was one of the bananas she threw at the lion she luckily found, and not even that was near fulfilling. She barely drank any of the water since the water in the lake that the island was in the middle of was salty. Luz was laying down on the beach, unable to move. Her hunger was dull and she was weakened, unable to do anything that required too much energy. Perhaps she was near death.

She saw a trail of ants go by her. Using whatever energy she had left, she took a handful of the ants and began to eat them.

At first, she didn't think much of it, but Luz began to use her brain. Looking up at the bright blue sky, she began to cry.

"I'm alive because I ate those ants. I'm alive because I consumed life..."

Luz got up in a crawling position and looks for the pile the ants had came from. She dug up the pile at began shoving handfuls of ants into her mouth. After demolishing the ant colony, she looked at her hands. "I'm still alive..."

From that very moment on, the rest of Luz's month became much more bearable. The monkeys were no longer stealing bananas from her- in fact, it was her taking the bananas from the monkey. She began hunting for fish, rabbits, and other small edible creatures to as food. Luz stayed in the jungle for hours, foraging and looking for rivers with fresh water to drink and bushes with berries to eat. Luckily for the rest of the month, the tiger stayed away from her, but she was prepared to fight it off if it meant living.

Though the month was hard, the final day on the island had came. It was night time, and she was grilling a piece of fish over her campfire. She looked up at the starry night sky- the moon was a wading crescent, the moon the same night that first monkey had scammed her.

Taking a bite of her fish, Luz started talking to herself. "I wonder what Eda meant by 'one is all, all is one'. But I think I'm starting to getting a better understanding of it. If I didn't those ants... I'd be dead. They would've eaten me, and then died. The ants would've decomposed and provided nutrients to the plants. Herbivores eat the plants, carnivores eat the herbivores, the carnivores die, and then the cycle repeats. It's like everything is connected in the universe by one big flow. Individually, we're all the size of ants compared to the universe. But when you put the Ones together, you get one great All. That's the only thing that keeps the world going. To recognize that flow, to work within it... to decompose and recreate...

"That is alchemy."

"So, is that right Ms. Eda?"

Eda burst out laughing and patted Luz on the shoulder. "Kid, I don't know what the fuck you've been through this past month, but you're sharper than I thought. Alright, I'll teach you alchemy. For real this time."

King growled on the boat. "I think she should STAY there a bit longer as a punishment for trying to cuddle with me all those times."

Eda looked back at king. "Oh, shut it you big baby or I'll make you share the room with Luz."

Looking back at Luz, Eda finished speaking. "Now listen, Luz. My lessons are gonna be way harder than what you've gone through on this island. Your body is gonna be sore after I'm done with you, but you're gonna be one of the best alchemists out there. Are you ready?"

Luz smiled at Eda and said determinedly, "I won't let you down!"


End file.
